Despite of the ever increasing sophistication of avionics systems, during the various stages of aircraft operation, personnel (e.g., pilots or engineers) are required to monitor seemingly countless items, including the configuration of the aircraft, appropriately respond to unpredicted changes in performance, and properly control the various axes of the aircraft. With respect to such items, during flight aircraft crew members are required to make crucial decisions which may affect the state of the aircraft.
Conventional, present warning systems are essentially “feedback” systems that inform the crew of the effects of a particular decision, or course of action taken based on a decision, after the effect has taken place. Additionally, conventional warning systems are non-desirable because they typically fail to account for the aging of various components on the aircraft. The aging, or wear, on a component is typically determined during maintenance using Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF) measurements provided by the manufacturer of the component. There are limited means to determine the aging or degradation while the component is in operation, as such testing generally needs to be performed in a non-obtrusive manner.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a method and system for predicting the performance of an aircraft and providing a user with an indication of the predicted performance. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics of the present invention will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and the foregoing technical field and background.